ST. CROIX — A retired brigadier general with deep roots in the American South — and a chapter of his military career spent serving in the Virgin Islands National Guard — came closer than any Democrat in more than a decade to flipping one of Georgia’s most reliably Republican congressional districts, before ultimately falling short in a special election runoff this week.
Shawn Harris, a fourth-generation cattle farmer from Rockmart, Georgia, lost to Republican Clay Fuller in Tuesday’s runoff election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District — the seat left vacant when former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned in January. Fuller carried 56% of the vote, winning by about 12 points.
But the margin told only part of the story.
In a district that Republican Greene won by 29 points just two years ago, Fuller — who was endorsed by President Donald Trump — won by just under 12 points. Even though he lost, Harris performed about 25 percentage points better than expected considering Democrats only received about 35% of the vote in that district during the last presidential election in 2024.
The race to fill Georgia’s 14th District seat was set in motion under unusual circumstances. On November 21, 2025, Greene announced her resignation from Congress effective January 5, citing her disagreements with Trump over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. She had represented the 14th District since 2021. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp subsequently scheduled a special election for March 10. Tuesday’s runoff election was triggered when none of the 21 candidates, including 16 Republicans, received a majority of the votes.
In March, Fuller and Harris emerged as the top two vote-getters in a race where all the special election candidates ran on the same ballot regardless of party. Harris received the most votes in the special election with 37.3% of the vote, while Fuller received 34.9% — setting up the head-to-head runoff.
Harris’ path to the congressional ballot was shaped by four decades of military service that took him far from his hometown of Blakely, Georgia. After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of sergeant. He left the Marines and went to Tuskegee University, earning a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness. He then joined the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Harris was deployed as an infantry commander in Afghanistan, where he saw extensive combat. He also led a team into Liberia during the Ebola outbreak in 2014. He later served as a senior military advisor in posts around the world, retiring as a brigadier general.
His military career eventually led him to the Virgin Islands, where he served with the Virgin Islands National Guard — one of several National Guard assignments that also included Alabama, Michigan, and Georgia. In 2018, then-VING adjutant general, Brigadier General Deborah Howell, announced Harris as her new director of joint staff at the Joint Force Headquarters.
After retiring from the military in 2023, Harris and his wife Karla — a family physician he met in college — started a first-generation grass-fed cattle farm in Rockmart.
Harris ran as a moderate Democrat who sought to build a coalition that crossed party lines. His campaign platform focused on passing the Farm Bill, bringing high-paying jobs to Northwest Georgia, expanding health care access, fixing the Veterans Affairs system, and addressing the housing crisis. He positioned himself as an independent voice, telling supporters he would not be beholden to party interests.
This was not Harris’ first run at the seat.
He previously ran against Greene in the 2024 general election, taking home just over 35% of the vote in that race. His improved performance in this year’s special election cycle signaled growing momentum. He conceded Tuesday night.
“Whoever would’ve thought that this race would be this close in a ruby red district,” he told a Georgia reporter with Local 3 News after hearing the results.
Harris said he respects his runoff election loss to Fuller and remains optimistic as he continues campaigning for the full two-year congressional term in November. He has already qualified for the May 19 Democratic primary for the full-term seat.
